Cooler for comfort



Oct. 19, 1937. A. A; KUCHER' COOLER FOR COMFORT Filed Sept. 9, 1936 Patented Oct. 1 9, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 10 Claims.

The present invention relates to refrigerating apparatus and particularly to coolers for personal comfort. 2

I have discovered that when refrigerated and. dehydrated air is passed over the upper part of a human, for example, over the forehead, the relief.

from excessive environment heat is beyond that expected. I have also discovered that for comfort, it is not necessary and in fact not desirable.

to cool the air to too low a temperature, because if the differential in temerature of the air passing over the head and the air about the other parts of the body is too great, the person cooled is disturbed by this difference.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a cooler for human comfort in which a container for refrigerating medium, such as ice, is used to cool the air and in which the air is directed over the container for cooling the same and thereby causing a natural circulation of cooled air.

Another object of the present invention is .to provide a refrigerant container which is relatively large in two dimensions but relatively thin so that relatively large heat exchange surfaces,

compared with the volume of the container, are presented to the air passing through the cooler and over the container.

The moisture from the moisture laden air con-' denses on the cooled surfaces of the cooler and in carrying outthe foregoing objects, it is a further object of the invention to provide for conveying this condensate away from the cooling surfaces and prevent the revaporizatlon of the same.

-. Other and further objects and advantages will I be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing wherein a preferred form of embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a bed showingone application of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a front view in elevation of the cooler;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the cooler, the section being taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

My invention is applicable to many uses and is particularly useful for cooling the occupant of a bed. Therefore, I have illustrated the invention in connection with a bed 20. The cooler 2| is placed at the head portion of the bed above the pillow 22. Air passing through the cooler, contacts with the cooled surfaces thereof and condenses and drops toward the pillow and over the head of the occupant.

The cooler 2| comprises an outer casing having a main section 23 formed of sheet metal. This main section is open at the top and bottom. The bottom of the main section 23 is capped by the cap 24 preferably soldered in position. The

- top of section 23 is capped by the cover 25 which is readily removable so that access may be had to the chamber 26 formed by the section 23. A series of holes are provided in the back 21 of section 23 to receive bolts 28 which are used for securing a. hook 29 in desired adjusted position. This hook 29 is covered with rubber hose 3| or the like and extends over the top of the bed for holding the cooler 2| in position. Laterally spaced and rearwardly adjustable rubber bumpers 32 are suitably secured toward the bottom of the section 23 for suitably spacing the cooler from the bed.

A refrigerant container 35 formed of sheet metal, including a main section 36 and a permanently secured bottom cap 31 is removably carried within the casing 23. Spaced hooks 39 are carried by the upper part of the container 35 which are received by an air inlet opening 40 in the back 21 of main outer section 23. This opening 40 and the hooks 39 are arranged so as to locate the container 35 and hold the upper part thereof spaced from the walls of the chamber 26. A clip 4| is secured to the lower part of the container 35 forspacing the lower part from the back wall of chamber 26.

An inlet opening 43 and an outlet opening 44 the passages 46 will be replenished with airv through inlet openings 40 and 43. Consequently v cooledair will flow from the outlet 44 continu-' ously as long as refrigeration takes place in the passages 45. A generally arcuate shaped baiiie 41 is secured at its lower end to the front below the outlet opening 44 and at its upper end to the back 21 of section 23. This baille 41 directs theair, which passes over the back of container 35, toward the outlet opening 44, whence the cooled air passes across the head of the occupant of the bed.

The moisture from the air, passing through passages 46, will condense on the walls of secthese walls. Some of the condensate will fall on the baflle 41 and drain toward the outlet 44. In order to prevent this water from passing through the outlet 44, the baflie 41 is provided with a rise 49 adjacent the outlet 44 to form a trough 50. Water from the trough drains to the sides of baffle 47 and drops into the cap 24 which forms a receiving receptacle.

For practical purposes it is desirable to provide the container 35 with relatively large heat exchange surfaces as compared with the volume of the container. In order to accomplish this, the casing 23 and ice container 35 are flattened i. e., the fronts and backs are wide and long as compared to the sides which interconnect the fronts and backs. The drawing Figs. 1 and 2 is approximately two fifths size and I have found that an appreciable and adequate temperature diiferential will be maintained for a period of several hours with one filling ofthe ice container when the environment room temperature is in, the neighborhood of F. The container 35 is sufficiently wide for receiving the ice cubes made in the household electric refrigerator and one tray of cubes will be suflicient to last several hours.

The present invention is particularly useful for cooling an occupant of a bed and is desirable for hospital and home use. The ice container 35 is removed preferably for emptying the water therefrom and filling the same with ice. The cap 25 of casing 23 is removed for this purpose. It is necessary to remove the casing 23 from the bed only when too much drip water is contained within cap 24.

Thus it is apparent from the foregoing that I have provided a cooler for comfort which is relatively simple in construction and therefore can be manufactured cheaply. Substantially all parts are formed of sheet metal. Also, this cooler requires 'only a readily available bulk refrigerant medium, for example, ice, solid CO2, etc. Also, chamber 35 can be cooled by artificial refrigeration, however, it has been found that ice performs the function satisfactorily. If a refrigerant, such as solid CO2, is employed having sublimating characteristics, a fitting 5| would be attached ad I jacent the lower end of container 35 for remove ing the gas therefrom. A flexible tube 52 would be connected to the fitting 5| to conduct the gas away from the occupant of the bed.

While the form of embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed constitutes 'a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted-all coming within the scope of the claims which follow:

I claim:

1. In combination with a bed having a head portion, a readily portable air cooler for personal comfort, said cooler comprising a refrigerant container, means forming with the said container an air passage along the side thereof and including an air inlet adjacent the top of the cooler and an tion 23 and container 35 and fiow downwardly on air outlet adjacent the bottom of the cooler and means for supporting said cooler on said head portion with the air outlet in position to discharge the cooled air upon the head of an occupant of the bed.

2. The structure described in claim 1 in which the size of the air passage is so related to the capacity of the container as to promote a positive gentle downfiow of air through the passage.

3. The structure described in claim 1 in which said outlet is formed to discharge the air in asheet.

4. The structure described in claim 1 and including means for detachably securing the container to a wall of the first mentioned means.

5. The structure described in claim 1 in which the first mentioned means forms a chamber and in which means is associated with the said first mentioned means and the container for holding convection, comprising a flat container for bulk refrigerant, a casing forming a flat chamber containing said refrigerant container, the walls of said casing being spaced from the container to form a narrow air path therebetween, said casing having an opening adjacent the top for the ingress of air to the passage and having an opening at the bottom for the egress of air from the passage, and means for supporting said cooler with the air outlet in position to discharge the cooled air upon the head of the person being cooled.

'7. In combination with a bed having a head portion, a readily portable self-contained air cooler for comfort, including a container for bulk refrigerant and a passage for air terminating in an outlet in the lower portion of the cooler, and

means for detachably straddling the head portion of the bed and securing the'cooler thereto in such position as to locate the outlet adby directing it in heat exchange relation with a bulk refrigerant at a point slightly above the normal position of the head of such occupant and directing the cooled air in a gentle stream across said position of the head.

10. The method described in claim 9 characterized by the use of a refrigerant having ice as a constituent.

ANDREW A. KUCHER. 

